Driscoll reels in ACC
Maybe Jake Lindfors really is unstoppable.
Saturday against Aurora Central Catholic the 6-foot-10 Driscoll senior was 5 of 24 from the floor but 16 of 16 on free throws for game highs of 26 points and 16 rebounds.
"If you said he's going to be 5 for 24, I'd say we're probably going to struggle," said Driscoll coach Nick Latorre.
A struggle it was, each shot and possession contested. Before a snarling, fire-code-violation crowd in Addison, Driscoll beat ACC 67-57 in a Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game with title implications.
"If I looked at those numbers I wouldn't have thought we had a chance," Lindfors said of his shooting stats.
"But luckily we hit free throws (25 of 27), Dave Schwabe played big, Justin (Hejza) played good, Matt (Kaban) played good. So luckily other people stepped up, picked me up, and we came out with a win."
ACC (21-3, 10-2) holds a half-game lead on Driscoll with two left in the SCC. Driscoll (17-7, 9-2), which lost to ACC in the first meeting, has three left, including a Saturday date against 8-2 St. Francis.
"We're hoping for a tie, is our best-case scenario," said ACC coach Nathan Drye, "staggered" by foul calls that had both 6-6 Nick Czaja and 6-1 banger Mike Adams foul out in the fourth quarter.
Their absences didn't help all-star forward Mark Adams, who led the Chargers with 17 points despite playing 31 minutes on a bum ankle.
"I think the phantom fouls kind of hurt us," Drye said.
"We kind of expected it just because of the tradition they have here at Driscoll, kind of," said Czaja, who scored 15 points. "We knew we had to play smart, but it's hard, and we fell back into foul trouble again."
Czaja's 8-point first quarter had the Chargers up 16-13 going into the second, and ACC led 24-21 with 4:35 left to play before halftime.
Driscoll answered with a 9-0 run to close the half, begun on Hejza's 3-pointer and ended on Schwabe's 7-foot floater just before the horn for a 30-24 Driscoll lead.
ACC never again went ahead and faced a 47-37 deficit in the third quarter.
"That was their big run," Mark Adams said. "We could have went down, but we came back, and then we just couldn't finish it up."
Kaban joined Lindfors at the foul line in the fourth quarter; with Czaja out the two big men and Schwabe combined to hit 14 of 14. Kaban finished with 20 points, Schwabe with 15.
ACC relied on 3-pointers by Anthony Kelley, Brian O'Donnell and Mark Andrews to stay within 59-56 of Driscoll with 1:53 to play. After Mike Adams fouled out Kaban and Lindfors paced an 8-1 run to end the game.
"You can't stop a guy like (Lindfors) -- 6-10 that can shoot the 3 and then try to foul him and he makes all his free throws. He's not like Ben Wallace," Schwabe said.